


...

by Ni_Ichi_Shichi



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:47:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25718311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ni_Ichi_Shichi/pseuds/Ni_Ichi_Shichi
Summary: This was originally titled "ANTECENDENT". It's a story I cancelled and have here as a reminder.If this is your first time here and you're looking for completed works, please do yourself a favour and hit your back button.
Relationships: Agent 3/Agent 8 (Splatoon)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 72





	1. PROLOGUE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally titled "ANTECENDENT". It's a story I cancelled and have here as a reminder.
> 
> If this is your first time here and you're looking for completed works, please do yourself a favour and hit your back button.

Having finally reached the end of this section with his best friend right behind him, Agent 8 honestly couldn't place what emotion he was experiencing. Each post in this part of the museum had outlined the functionality of these human weapons in great detail, providing written paragraphs on how they operated for the user as well as the hidden advantages within their design. Having similar mechanisms to the ink-based weapons he was already accustomed to, working out the basic internal reactions hadn't been difficult; but he'd have never guessed the latter secrets by visually studying the little recreational models in the same simplistic way.

That wasn't a problem in this situation though. What was getting to him more was the dates inscribed on a few specific showcases.

At the far end of this lengthy section's row sat the horrifically powerful fine-tuned machines. Devices aiming to inflict nothing more than the quickest and most consistent killing of others at truly sickening rates. Like a few new 'modded' weapons he'd recently laid eyes on, his fear from the raw mechanical operations from some of these was equal in legitimacy. Lower down from here were weapons using what was, at the time, brand new inventions for the ancient species - an example being the funny looking arquebus which had utilized their breakthrough of gunpowder. Going lower still landed you to the simpler primitive weapons, crossbows down to bows, swords down to spears... and it was this area in particular where his unease stemmed from.

Because all of them were multiple thousands of years old.

It was rather difficult to comprehend, people semi-similar to his own existing during lengths of time spanning that far back. But what outright cemented the reality in his mind was an unintentional side effect of what else was visible on each post. Every single one of them had little images attached alongside the written descriptions, some of which being real surviving photos from the human cameras whereas others were generic drawings instead. And all of them unanimously held a single consistency.

Taking a look upwards to see through the building's pretty skylight, the young Agent's eyes were unsurprisingly met with a calm blanket of cyan. Looking sideways through this section's singular window revealed nothing out of the ordinary either, with soft lush greenery meeting all corners of his vision and additional fluffy clouds being sighted further in the distance.

It really was true, wasn't it? All of this had indeed happened. On this very same planet so long ago, the amount of time still being extremely long simply within their own existence, humans had been battling against each other quite literally until the end of their time. Right from their beginning through to their abrupt demise. And they'd done so for all that time in the exact same environment that himself and everyone else experienced every day right now too. Both the slingshot tribesman and the rifle marine fought his fellow man under the same sun, walking under the identical forms of grass and rock while doing so.

...Kinda like how both the older Squids with their classic Bamboozlers fought the same Octarian forces as their newer Hero-Shot-wielding counterparts did so these days.

What a horrible thing to learn about. How awful to now have this knowledge permanently rooted in his mind. This history right here documented clearly that for any form of intelligent species that was to exist, for whatever reason it may be throughout the differing generations, warfare within themselves will simply never end. Even with temporary peace, eventually... given enough time... another fight was always to arise.

It truly was surreal for him. Especially considering his own past memories. For both his own specific species, the squids he now lived by, and the differing humans of the past - these acts of neverending conflict repeatedly occurring continued to hold completely true. All these people with such intelligence to create wonderful things were the same who would foolishly hurt one another to no end. The majority who were smart, helpful, and just wanted the best for others and themselves, yet willingly performed or silently supported these acts throughout their lifetimes without any sizeable objection.

He would have went further still into his own thinking until a hand pulling his own thankfully broke him out of his thoughts. It was good to finally be out of that negative mindset, but the truth was he already knew who's hand that belonged to and wouldn't have cared any higher if he was having positive thoughts instead.

"We're going over here, alright?"

That slightly-gruff voice never got old to his ears either. How contradictory that a voice that brought him such peace literally came from one of - if not THE - most violent cephalopods to exist within his own time period. And just to build atop of that was knowing how he was without question the person he truly adored the most as well. Really, the strongest kind of wrench you could throw into his recent thinking that completely obliterated his argument from the inside out.

He didn't know how much validity his own morals and credibility had left after being stacked against that reminder. He'd just been hammering on internally about how wrong it was for others to accept violence in the world without doing anything about it... and here he was essentially going further than silently letting it happen by LOOKING UP to someone who'd done more than imaginable amounts of that. Enough for 10 people. 100, even. On a different branch of his own species.

He was even less sure on what he was feeling now.

"Oh, okay."

...

"...What, that's it?"

Both confusion and annoyance were present in the reply. A combination Agent 8 had become quite accustomed to hearing over the past year - even when he had yet to understand the words themselves.

"Just, 'Okay'? Really? I've been calling you for an entire minute, Eight. What's wrong?"

Looks like he was in deeper thought than he realised.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Agent Three! I was just, thinking..."

"Yeah, no shit." The older squid paired a smirk with the snarky comment he shot back, taking a single step closer towards his best friend before continuing. "What was it about?"

Taking some time before voicing his own response, Agent 8 actually ended up dropping its use; giving up on a lengthy explanation to his thought process to settle on a short sentence to get his point across instead. Slightly due to his Inkling having never become perfect and always carrying the small risk of messing up any longer sentence, but more so by knowing that with a simple question he could hear what Agent 3 thought about this then too. Something which was of much higher value to him in comparison.

"All this violence, even for us..."

He paused for a brief moment. Agent 3 allowed him to continue.

"It, just... never ends, no?"

Now it was the other who took his time to reply. And from what he said, after his pupils had briefly panned over to each ancient weapon on the side, it seems he too opted to drop the window of time's benefits. His prior expression was nowhere to be seen.

"...No, Eight. It... doesn't."

Being met with such flat, negative words wasn't at all what Agent 8 expected, and he soon caught sight of the other's unusual sadness now also being present his face. With a squeeze of his own hand back tightly, the octoling looked up at him directly with concern almost instinctively, giving a small smile in an attempt to improve his mood. Shortly after doing so, he received a similar smile back, the sight of which boosting his own happiness as it'd often done in the past.

**Perhaps it was best for him not to talk further about violence with Agent 3 for now.**

Fingers still intertwined the entire distance over, the pair walked away wordlessly from that section of the museum towards the next, entering the connecting room together eager to shift discussion to whatever differing topic it'd contain instead.


	2. Original plot background

This morning in Inkopolis had been unlike any other in history. For possibly the first time since its original construction not a single Inkling had been sighted anywhere near the popular hangout location. Typically you'd at least see a few groups around, down to a singular kid standing afar to admire the white fox and tanuki at the very extreme. But today was different, for any Inkling who dared make an appearance would sadly be met with a Plaza lacking all its life.

They wouldn't be able to play turf battles with one another as the battle lobby doors had yet to be activated. They wouldn't be able to shop at Booyah Base as the usual vendors to purchase from had yet to show up. They wouldn't even be able to try for a wave from Callie or Marie as neither Squid Sister was striking a pose in the news room.

None of that usual casual fun would be taking place on this day. A very serious note had been sent to every local resident overnight, multiple times over by both text and post, and it was enough to get word spreading quickly to ensure nobody would set foot in the surroundings today. Not even the classic rule-breaking rebels had experienced the very idea of considering setting foot in the place. Without a doubt, Inkopolis Plaza was abandoned right now.

And it was for good reason.

Approaching from the distance was a kind of flying rectangle. It seemed to function like a type of spaceship, lacking any form of rotor blades or propulsion but not requiring such things in order to stay afloat. Though a very unusual sight, it didn't look particularly threatening to anything. ...Excluding the hollow spacing at the very top, which contained rows of crates sitting in an orderly fashion; all appearing to vibrate as the entire thing grew closer.

And as it flew closer still, said crates began to rise.

The inhabitants hiding within them soon made themselves known. Scattering out rapidly to a messy circular formation, they started collectively raining havoc down without so much of a prior warning. The weapons they handled were highly powerful, exerting designs never before seen by even the most seasoned of turfers. All of which were being utilized over the whole cherished plaza. Positioned inconspicuous atop a generic vending machine a tiny stray electronic device captured all of this, small camera tracking well until it was struck down from the sudden carnage. It broke instantaneously as they let loose the full attack, no longer capable of sending the feed of what it had saw.

But those few seconds it had managed were enough for confirmation.

Inkopolis Tower was the first to fall. A barrage of missiles blew holes on the asphalt it firmly stood on, generating uneven ground from small sections elevating on impact while the majority awkwardly dented downwards. The tower's green framing briefly held steady against the shifting height but was unable to withstand further as the devastation only rose, metal skeleton roughly bending inwards before toppling fully - gravity having overpowered its new mismatched shape and now serving to aid in crashing the famous landmark down.

A lazerbeam soon pierced through the other two landmarks nearby, cutting multiple lines until neither structure resembled what it once was. While this tragic scene took place numerous dark clouds rose with distinctive sounds in the background, drizzling down a mysterious substance as they passed which corroded straight through all the other buildings. Materials that resisted strongly weren't safe either, as puddling together atop of them only served to make the unknown fluid increase in its strength, chipping away pieces faster which grew to crumble larger sections down. This was worsened from the crashed sections sticking to one another unnaturally, mixing strangely to deform until they were completely unrecognizable.

It wasn't only the trio of iconic buildings that were hit. The missiles kept on coming, targetting nothing in particular as everything major had already been substantially demolished. A series of sparks dangerously flew across what was once smooth flat pathways out of nowhere in particular - the plaza's electronics having flared up in unison as the cables between them too were ripped apart from multiple places at once. Thankfully, the Great Zapfish had been successfully coaxed away overnight and was not lingering nearby to be exposed to any harm.

It had only taken mere minutes for everything to perish so drastically. The ground was essentially impassable now, and the remaining fragments of each shop weakly standing upright wouldn't be able to be recovered. To all who loved Inkopolis and had so many positive memories of the place, the simple fact of just knowing this had taken place was utterly heartbreaking. But thankfully, at the very least, nobody personally had been hurt from this incident of pure evil.

The larger actions of the attack had been felt by the residents back home. Distant sounds and a sudden drop of power was enough for them to understand those notes were for real. Everyone had shared knowledge of this now even if their communication devices were temporarily unavailable, and from the closer homes to the plaza spanning outwards to the furthest - nobody came close to going outside.

After a period of around 10 minutes their electronics were filled with life once more. Without them knowing, the city's emergency power had been activated in secrecy. There had only been one previous time this had been done in recent years, back when the Great Zapfish had first disappeared. No ordinary citizen had knowledge of it existing. To most people, the act of the Great Zapfish leaving had not caused a single hiccup in any of their electronics. Some even claimed to see it flying around often with the same unnoticeable effects, and used this 'evidence' as proof to it being unnecessary coiled around the tower.

The real truth was that every electronic device was incredibly eco-friendly now. Both the ones used at Inkopolis in mass or personally for the kids themselves shared this trait. They were nothing like the voltage hungry tech of the past, back when the whole power backup system had first been instated. It hadn't even eaten into the reserves a single time for the entire duration it was utilized as the output necessary had seriously been that low. This strategy had worked a treat for the time until the Great Zapfish had been returned, performing in an indistinguishable manner from what the eel naturally provided, and by the looks of things was working perfectly for homes now.

But unknowingly, the act of flipping the switch into action this time had actually caused a secondary outcome to take place elsewhere. In the time between now and when the Zapfish was originally returned it would seem someone had been tinkering around a little with the routing of its output. It wasn't noticeable to the person who did it. Actually, they thought it was working better than usual. Even with the ripped wires at the Plaza causing zones of broken circuitry it was managing to send electricity smoothly to each and every home with zero issues.

It was kinda weird that the voltage level was slightly higher than before though. Did people really carry double the amount of electronic devices compared to last year? Yeah, it was possible I guess. Those darn kids with their mass of shiny toys. The majority of them hadn't even spent 5 years with their last console. Their growing electronic collection was a plausible reason. A much simpler outcome than say, the action of flipping that switch having accidentally flooded somewhere else with power.

And that flooded power definitely wouldn't, say, wake someone up or something.

That would just be ridiculous.


	3. ...

Hello. I know this story used to have a total of 15 chapters with over 50,000 total words, but I've ultimately decided to stop beating around the bush and just outright cancel it like I should have a long time ago.

I haven't been enjoying writing any part of this nearly as much as my other two stories, and taking an overall look at the plot it's essentially becoming a worse version of INKALINE - the only difference being each consecutive chapter here made the storyline more bland and basic over more unique and interesting, due to this story being much more grounded in reality and solely playing off the canon lore. This would've been fine if the plotline didn't become so painfully obvious or if I had retained the unique aspects I had going in the beginning / made new ones that made logical sense, yet as things went on everything eventually became flat out boring; I doubt you couldn't guess exactly how this was going to end simply by having played Octo Expansion.

The early chapters weren't so bad, but evidently I didn't write any of the characters properly based on how they incorrectly developed, nor did I plan far enough ahead to properly pace out any of the events that took place. Being completely serious here: the entire thing became far too implausible to the point of even making ME struggle to continuously get invested and view it with any level of authenticity. I was considering having characters take actions that they flat out would never realistically even get in any position to do so when written remotely faithfully. If I would show you their quotes separated from this and asked you to choose who most likely said it I wouldn't be one bit surprised if you struggled to do so.

I'm not meaning to act like a random fan story about a video game holds any importance by writing this here, I'm just hoping to get anyone who was following this to understand why I no longer have any desire to finish this. To put it bluntly: The entire thing became too fucked up to simply fix without essentially starting it all over again, which I just don't want to do. Sorry for the disappointment, though for one silver lining, you can rest assured I'll never post anything here from now on until the entire thing is already completed behind the scenes so this doesn't ever happen again. I don't feel ashamed to have made such a mistake here, because as long as I've learnt a hard lesson from it, the time wasn't totally wasted.

Thanks to everyone who supported this story while it was active. (Especially Bucket_Full_Of_Bolts, who never missed a single chapter.) I'll leave the first couple chapters public here as a forever reminder. If you don't want to read anything new from me in the future that's fine too. I know I'd be frustrated if something I was following just up and left seemingly out of the blue - after having been so kindly supported incredibly heavily no less.

Happy New Year.


End file.
